Rural Migration Blog

World wine production rose 12 percent from 251 million hectoliters in 2017 to 282 million hectoliters or 7.5 billion gallons in 2018; one hectoliter is 26.4 gallons. The highest global production was in 2004, when almost 300 million hectoliters was produced, followed by 2013 with 290 million hectoliters.

On April 30, 2007, the New Zealand government launched the Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme to admit up to 5,000 Pacific Island workers to fill seasonal jobs in horticulture and viticulture. The RSE program was designed with input from growers and aimed to benefit NZ farmers, migrant workers, and Pacific Island sending countries.

Australia's hired horticultural workforce includes mostly legal temporary and unauthorized foreign workers. However, fewer than 10 percent of horticultural workers are guest workers admitted after employers test the labor market for local workers. This makes Australia different from Canada, New Zealand, and the US, where most temporary foreign workers are admitted only after farm employers try and fail to recruit local workers under government supervision.

Several thousand Hondurans in October 2018 left San Pedro Sula to travel through Guatemala and Mexico to the US to apply for asylum. As they moved north, President Trump threatened to cut off aid to Honduras and to tear up the new USMCA trade agreement if Mexico did not prevent their transit. Trump said that border security is "far more important" to him than USMCA, the successor to NAFTA.

Circular or temporary labor migration programs (TLMPs), also known as "guestworker" programs, aim to add workers temporarily to a country's labor force without adding permanent immigrants to its population. Many countries richer than their neighbors operate TLMPs. Some have multiple programs, including programs for seasonal workers, youth and students, and skilled workers and professionals.

The Census released American Community Survey data in September 2018 that found 44.5 million or 13.7 percent of US residents were born abroad in July 2017. DHS estimated that up to two million foreign-born were missed by the ACS, which would make the total number of immigrants over 46 million.

The US is the country of immigration, with almost 20 percent of the world's 260 million international migrants. The number two country of immigration, Germany, has 12 million migrants compared with almost 48 million foreign-born US residents. The US stands alone among industrial countries in having almost a quarter of its immigrants, over 11 million, unauthorized.

Figure 1 below shows that DOL certified 242,762 jobs to be filled with H-2A workers in FY18, up 20 percent from FY17. The top five states of Georgia (13 percent), Florida (12 percent), Washington (10 percent), North Carolina (9 percent), and California (8 percent) accounted for 52 percent of the jobs certified.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistic's Consumer Expenditure Survey reported 130 million US "consumer units" or households in 2017. They had an average of 2.5 persons, 1.3 earners and 1.9 motor vehicles. Some 63 percent were homeowners and the average age of the reference person in the household was 51. Average consumer unit income before taxes was $73,600, and average annual household expenditures were $60,100.